Procedure - Decision

You apply for it verbally during the submission of your asylum application and not in a separate interview. It is better to do so during the pre- registration process. In any case it is necessary to apply during your full registration. At the time of the full registration process you should request to be reunited with your family member/members located in the specific country and to have your asylum application examined there. Also, you must state which this country is and to declare the members of your family located there.

The asylum applicant’s card is issued during the asylum application submission (full registration) regardless if it concerns family reunification or relocation.

If until the date indicated on you asylum applicant’s card as the date of your interview your family reunion application has been rejected, then your interview will take place as arranged and your asylum application in Greece will be examined.

Please keep in mind that you MUST renew your asylum applicant’s card until its expiry date.

In case there are serious reasons to speed up the family reunification procedure (e.g. in case the applicant, or a family member with him/her, or the person who is in the third country faces a serious health issue) you must mention it during your first registration or later and provide any relevant documents. The Greek Asylum Service examines the request and if deems the reason important then it speeds up the procedure.

If this serious health issue concerns a family member of the applicant or the applicant himself/herself who is in Greece, then the medical documents provided should be issued by a Greek public hospital.

Following the submission of the family reunification application, the Regional Asylum Office (RAO) addresses a question to the third country within three (3) months asking whether it accepts to be the member state responsible for the asylum application examination, i.e. if it accepts the reunification of the applicant with his/her family member/members. The third country is obliged to answer within two (2) months of the receipt of the request.

If the answer is positive, you will get informed by the Greek Asylum Service via the telephone and you will be asked to visit the Regional Asylum Office (RAO) in order to receive the relevant decision. This decision is an inadmissibility decision regarding your asylum application in Greece and it will state that you have to be transferred to the third country responsible for the asylum application examination. In the meantime, you have to sign a declaration of renunciation from any legal remedies against this decision.

If the answer from the European country where the reunification will take place is negative, then the Asylum Service (National Dublin Unit) - if it finds it necessary - may ask for clarifications regarding the rejection from that third country, or submit an application re-examination request. If again the answer is negative, then the asylum request is examined in Greece.